Top 5 Claims Against Home Inspectors: Real-World Scenarios That Could Happen to You

By Stephanie Jaynes, Marketing Director for InspectorPro Insurance

Many home inspectors know the feeling: You complete a thorough inspection, deliver your report, and move on to the next job. Then, months or years later, a letter arrives. A lawsuit has been filed against your inspection business. Now, you have an insurance claim.

Though the exact definition varies across insurance carriers, for our purposes, a claim is a written demand for money. It can be a lawsuit, an email, even a text. Your client may be demanding a refund, money for repairs, or compensation for a perceived wrong. And you can receive claims like these even if you aren’t at fault.

No matter how careful you are, claims can happen to anyone. At InspectorPro Insurance, we've handled thousands of claims on behalf of home inspectors across the country, and the patterns are clear. Certain issues come up again and again. The top five claims against home inspectors are:

1. Water damage.
2. Roof defects.
3. Foundation issues.
4. Plumbing problems.
5. Mold.

(If you’re already familiar with our top five claims list, you may have noticed a slight change: plumbing and mold claims have swapped places. After occupying our last spot for nearly 10 years, plumbing problems have surpassed mold issues in terms of frequency. More on that later.)

To help inspectors like you avoid the most common claims against home inspectors, we’re doing a live webinar on the ASHI Edge on August 18, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. CDT. Join us to learn why the above allegations are so common, hear recent examples from our archives, and learn how you can avoid similar claims against your business.

And here’s a sneak peak of the five types of inspection claims we see most often, along with real-world scenarios that illustrate just how complex—and costly—these situations can become.

1. Water Damage

Through leaky pipes, malfunctioning appliances, and exterior damage, water finds a way. Water intrusion degrades materials, rots wood, and grows mold. And it can quietly damage structures for months or even years before you or the homeowners discover it.

In Massachusetts, a home inspector received a claim for failing to identify water intrusion in a detached garage. The water intrusion was so severe that it was rotting the support beams, compromising the integrity and safety of the building. Contractors were estimating as much as $15,000 to remediate and replace the beams. The client filing the claim was an attorney himself, and he was ready to spend whatever time necessary getting the inspector to admit fault and pay out.

2. Roof Defects

You’re on a first date. Your companion is expensive and high maintenance. They seem sensitive, and you worry they won’t fare well in the rain outside. You also get the feeling that they may be older than they look. Your date is, of course, a roof.

One Georgia inspector received an attorney letter demanding he pay to replace his client’s roof. Recent wind and rain had damaged the poorly secured shingles, letting water into the home. The inspector documented the roof defects beautifully in his inspection photos, but his narrative reporting? Not so much.

3. Foundation Issues

Negative grading, cracks, sticking doors and windows: These may be warning signs of foundation issues.

Foundation claims tend to be dramatic, with big dollars, emotional clients, and complex engineering questions. For home inspectors, they’re all the more dangerous. That’s because many of the claims we see involve pre-existing foundation issues that were concealed during the inspection.

In Texas, a client was in the process of selling their rental property. A prospective buyer noticed the floor was uneven. So the client hired a foundation contractor, who said the house needed foundation leveling and support. That’s when the client contacted their home inspector, who’d examined the property eight months earlier, and demanded they pay $40,000 to “fix the floor.”

4. Plumbing Problems

Hidden, slow-moving, and expensive, plumbing problems continue to plague clients and their inspectors. Misidentification, cracked and leaking pipes, drainage issues, and backups lead to most plumbing claims. But both are difficult to diagnose when most plumbing is hidden from view.

In Indiana, a home inspector was served for failing to identify leaking pipes in the crawlspace. However, due to inadequate vertical clearance, the inspector never even entered the crawlspace.

5. Mold

Is it in the shower? Hiding beneath the sink? Can it be in the closet? Or is it lurking behind the walls?

These are the mold-mares many homeowners experience. Many clients fear the potential adverse health effects of mold exposure, and that fear has a lot to do with why mold claims are common and expensive.

But why are they less common than they were 10 years ago? One trend we’re seeing is mold getting intertwined with claims for other issues, like water damage, roof leaks, ground drainage and water intrusion in basements, and plumbing leaks. So while we continue to see mold allegations very frequently, it’s rarer for mold to be the sole claim against home inspectors. Instead, it’s part of a larger claim for water-related issues and damages.

Mold may be outside the scope of a standard home inspection, but that doesn’t always stop claimants from filing. In fact, most mold claims are against companies that don’t sample for mold.

In Kansas, a home inspector received a $40,000 demand for mold remediation and repairs after his clients discovered mold in the basement. While his clients didn’t purchase a mold inspection, they believed the inspector was still at fault.

Learn how these claims resolved—and how to protect yourself.

Each of these five scenarios has a story to tell. The resolutions, the takeaways, the specific language and documentation strategies that made the difference—we're saving all of that for one place.

Join us on the ASHI Edge on August 18, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. CDT for our live webinar.

We'll walk through every claim above from start to finish: what the inspectors did right, what they wish they'd done differently, and the concrete steps you can take today to reduce your exposure tomorrow.

Whether you're a seasoned inspector or just building your practice, this is one hour that could save your business.

Can’t attend live? No problem. Anyone who registers will get access to the recording. Register now through the ASHI Edge to reserve your spot.